Friday's Internet Edition, May 09, 2008.
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| Rep. Julia Howard, surrounded by CATCH members Bill Foust, Joan Carter and Don Yeager, holds a box of petitions containing more than 8,400 signatures supporting Davie County Hospital. |
For the next month, that box and its contents will be Howard’s constant companion, as she takes them to Raleigh to show to officials with the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the certificate of need process - the process that in late Febrary denied a request by Davie County Hospital and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center to build a replacement facility in Hillsdale.
That box is filled with petitions containing more than 8,400 signatures of people who think Davie County has a right to have a hospital within its borders.
“I’m going to take this to the division people and simply say this is from the people of Davie County. It was not done by either of the competing hospitals (Novant/Forsyth Medical Center was denied a certificate of need for a replacement for Medical Park Hospital in Clemmons.). It’s from the people with a grave concern to have a hospital in Davie County.”
A hospital in Davie, Howard said, is vital for the health care needs of residents, economic development and continued growth.
She’s not leaving the petitions at the division.
They’re going on her next journey, when on opening day for the legislature’s short session, she plans to show the petitions as she introduces a joint resolution asking the division to consider factors pertaining to the availability of healthcare facilities in counties with relatively small populations.
Howard agrees with the certificate of need process, which she says keeps medical technology available to the most people. She says the resolution, which could become law this summer, may lack teeth, but hopes it carries enough weight to help smaller counties keep or lure a hospital.
“It’s gentle, yet it’s showing our efforts,” Howard said. “We’re going to continue to collectively, as citizens of Davie County, to provide ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.